Laura Buccieri: A Man’s Job

Alan Labisch

a man’s job

it’s a grill
the fancy kind
without any coals
only hidden gas lines

i approach it
in the same way
i walked up
to my girlfriend’s father
for the first time

confident
but hiding
everything i do
not know

the gas is on
and i start turning
the knobs
pressing the ignite button

my girlfriend and my friends
talking behind me
expecting fire

i pull out a blue lighter
from my pocket
secretly force it
between the slats
in the barbecue’s surface

flames appear with that popping sound
they make when fire hits it’s igniter

you’re the man
they said
and patted me on the back

i am the man

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Laura Buccieri lives in Manhattan, where she is an MFA candidate at The New School. She is a participant of Ashbery's Home School. You can find her forthcoming and most recent work in Prelude, Potluck, Word Riot, The Seventh Wave, Nourrir, Public Pool, Entropy, and FORTH. She works at Freeman’s Journal and Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop. Check out more of her work here: laurabuccieri.com.